Grow with Bovees Knowing the difference between acid and alkaline soil will help you to much better understand which plants you can grow the best.
Most plants do well in soil which is neutral or slightly acidic, but there are some which require distinctly acidic soils.
Every time I buy blue hydrangeas, they produce pink flowers the following year.
I hear people say that you can change the hydrangea color by altering the soil.
Is this really so?
Yes, fortunately, changing the color of hydrangeas is possible, and fairly straighforward, by adding things to the soil.
What a pleasure growing Swiss Chard is!
A veritable nutritional powerhouse full of vitamins, minerals and fibre but with negligible calories and lots of lovely ways to serve it raw or cooked.
At the same time, my personal favorites, the colorful varietals, such as ‘Bright Lights’, live up to their alternative name of ‘Rainbow Chard’ with super-bright veins and stems in shades from purple through red and orange to a vibrant yellow, adding a splash of color from the moment they sprout.
Read on to find out how to grow Swiss Chard in your own vegetable garden.
Easy to grow almost all year-round in most climates, learning how to grow beetroot is a good start for even the most novice of gardeners, being very easy to grow.
Jars of shop-bought pickled beetroot certainly have their place at Sunday afternoon tea with cold meat leftover from the Sunday Roast, but fresh from the garden they take on a whole new dimension of flavours with the added bonus of being chock-a-block full of nutritious goodness.
Yes, they can take a while to cook but treat yourself to a pressure cooker (the new electric ones are super safe and easy to use) and they’re done in half an hour!
Then all you have to do is pop them in a jar with your choice of vinegar and your favourite pickling spices and they’ll beat the shop-bought beetroot hands down.
They’re also great in salads with your Swiss chard and other salad greens that you can easily grow on your veg patch.
One of the first childhood memories most of us share was reading the story of Jack and The Beanstalk.
It might therefore come as a surprise to you that not all beans grow on vines, including some varieties of the Lima Bean plant.
Not only is growing them effortless, but they are also healthy and highly nutritious, containing high levels of iron, fiber, minerals, and protein.
Even if you don’t have a designated vegetable patch, you really should try growing green beans.
Not only is it relatively easy to get a satisfyingly good crop, but they can also be trained to grow up a variety of different decorative structures providing a lovely centrepiece for even the most bijoux of courtyard spaces.
Their pretty flowers, which, depending on the varietal can range from dark blue, through purple and lilac to white, put on a lovely display as well as producing a healthy addition to your dinner table.
Nasturtiums are a good planting companion to repel bean beetles and their yellow/orange/red colours contrast beautifully around the base of the beans if you have a white flowered variety.
Even if you are a relative new-comer to growing your own vegetables, growing Fava beans would be a good starter project because they are so easy and rewarding to grow, even if you live in a cool climate, because they actually thrive best between 40 and 70- deg F.
They can take up a bit more space than other beans because they have a bushy habit rather than a climbing habit. However, their value for money and value for time is unquestionable; from their nutritious culinary properties to the delights of their aromatic flowers and the very high nitrogen content in their root nodules making the residual plant material an excellent component for making compost or digging back into the soil.
